How worthy …..How worthy! The King in all his glory.
”Do you understand My glory? The weight of it which recognises My value – to the whole universe, but also and especially to you and your blog readers – a worth which, if you can behold it in your mind’s eye, should draw the deepest praise from your heart. You can renew your delight and anticipation at the thought of seeing My glory firsthand one day. In the meantime you can find My worth described throughout My word and learn more and more about it and Me. The creatures and the elders depicted in Revelation cast themselves down in the presence calling out “You are worthy, our Lord and God ….”. Let that meeting be the hope you keep close to your heart as you look forward into the future.”
Please read Romans 13:1-7. This is a well known passage which often draws debate. The question which is often raised is, “At what point is it OK to disobey the Government, if they are doing wrong or behaving evilly?”
The instruction, however appears to be quite clear. Obey the government because they have been placed there by God to keep order and to punish wrongdoing. Now remember Paul was writing to the Roman Christians who were being persecuted by their government, yet he says that if we rebel against authority we are rebelling against God vs 2.
Let us take a step back and notice first where this instruction has been placed in context. The wider context is Paul’s reminder that our correct worship is to offer our bodies as living sacrifices because our minds have been transformed 12:1,2. Immediately, this passage is bracketed by two statements on the overall importance of living our lives by the standard of love (12:9; 13:8) And just before this passage the instruction is to love our enemies. From that it is clear that Paul is showing us that the transformed Christian should not begrudge his service and obedience to authority, but actually positively do your share as it were, even if we do not particularly like the present government.
Can that be hard sometimes? Absolutely, but the answer is not to be law-breakers and dissatisfied citizens because we don’t like those in authority at the moment. May we work against them politically in a legal sense? Of course. Our whole attitude goes towards our Christian witness. If we become disgruntled, complainers we are aligning ourselves with God’s enemies, remember the book of Numbers.
But what about if you are expected to do something which is explicitly forbidden in God’s law? Well we should never go against His law. But what about grey areas? Well the answer is in vs 5: “conscience” we are then to let God guide you according to His word and apply it to your conscience, where God is actually communicating with you internally. Later in14:23 Paul reminds the readers, “everything that does not come from faith is sin”. Be sure that it is what faith is leading you to do.
In the end those circumstances are probably not so common, so we should be instructed by the overall message in this passage to be obedient and loving citizens, setting an example to others
May you all have a blessed week.